Where is the Muslim pope? The question is more pressing than ever

A few years ago, National Review editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg illuminated our national conversation about religion by asking a simple yet profound question: "Where is the Muslim pope?" Goldberg discussed the emergent need for a central authority figure within the Islamic world to provide Muslims with a well-defined moral compass and help isolate "jihadists" who taint Islam.

Goldberg's question remains as important as ever.

For millions of Muslims, the war within Islam is more important than the war against Islam. The battle lines grow increasingly clear: on one side stands a tiny minority of so-called "Muslims" who view their faith as an instrument of conquest and carnage, and on the other side, a majority of Muslims who view their faith as an instrument of hope and humanity.

The war within Islam plays out politically as well. In South Asia, the Pakistani government seeks to apprehend the perpetrators of the horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai. In Central Asia, the Afghani government struggles to prevent the resurgence of the Taliban. In Southeast Asia, Indonesian President Yudhoyono refuses to concede to the demands of religious hardliners. In the Middle East, the reformists in Iran defy President Ahmadinejad's brazen regime.

On our home front, President Obama recognizes the importance of isolating the extreme fringe groups within Islam. His Al-Arabiya interview and address in Turkey earned the United States newfound respect from the Islamic world. He managed to unsettle extremists who would pervert Islam to dangerous ends, invigorate moderate Muslims and remind Americans of the virtues of diplomacy and the power of an unclenched fist.

Now that the Muslim and Western worlds stand poised to resist extremism, the time is ripe for Muslims to take the final step towards rescuing their faith from the clutches of militancy: selecting and rallying around a single spiritual leader to defeat extremism. The prospect of a Muslim "pope" spearheading a spiritual revolution is not a fantastical notion. Indeed, Islam contemplates the need for a pope-like figure, a Khalifa of Islam, to reinvigorate the original message that Muhammad brought. Many millions of Muslims still await such a Khalifa.

For some Muslims, such a Khalifa already exists. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community - a dynamic, fast-growing international revivalist movement within Islam - boasts of having the only thriving Islamic caliphate in the Muslim world. Its current caliph, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, advocates a resurgence of Islam's true and essential teachings. For example, addressing a cadre of American journalists and intellectuals at a special gathering in Virginia last June, he proclaimed: "Violent jihad is unlawful in Islam and constitutes a grave sin." His community is the foremost Islamic organization to endorse a separation of mosque and state. He cautions against irrational interpretations of Quranic pronouncements and misapplications of Islamic law. Despite the vibrancy of his message, his Community faces brutal persecution in much of the Islamic world.

Many hope that Ahmad - or some other Khalifa - will begin to rid the Muslim world of extremism through a central and unifying message of peace and tolerance. The time is ripe for Muslims to find a reformist "pope."

Khan, a former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Human Rights Law Journal, currently practices law in Los Angeles, California.